In the field of internal combustion engines, there is a demand for preventing the outflow of nitrogen oxides (NOx) contained in exhaust gas exhausted from a combustion chamber into the atmosphere. In order to meet this demand, there is known an exhaust purification catalyst purifying exhaust gas of NOx. Such an exhaust purification catalyst is described in Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2001-173432. The exhaust purification catalyst described in Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2001-173432 is configured by a plurality of passages separated by partitions; into which passages pellet-shaped NOx absorbent is packed to purify the exhaust gas of NOx by reduction.